Microsoft is kicking up a notch its competition with Apple's iPad with a new, limited time trade-in offer.

"Trade in your iPad, Get a min. $200 gift card," according to the deal, outlined on the Microsoft Online store site. The gift card may be used towards the purchase of a Microsoft Surface or other products available through the Microsoft Store.

Wow that is weird. Wonder if Apple will counter this promotion. I doubt it, as they don't have any trouble selling their products on their own merit over the last 10 years.

Re: that commercial - My PC-using boss says to me "I still think Siri is pretty", so I guess the commercials are delivering opposite results.

I love how Microsoft, while trying to show what a surface can do versus what an iPad can do, uses Siri as the narrator. Why wouldn't the surface narrate? Why advertise your competitors strategic advantages? Plus they make the fake Siri smarter than the actual one.

Makes it seem like they found the only 3 things that an iPad can't do out of the box, even if it takes $10 worth of add-ons to do it.

I love how Microsoft, while trying to show what a surface can do versus what an iPad can do, uses Siri as the narrator. Why wouldn't the surface narrate? Why advertise your competitors strategic advantages?

Wait, ... so you believe Siri actually offers a strategic advantage? You're the first person I've aware of who regards Siri as more than fluff/simple entertainment. Would you mind elaborating on how exactly you think Siri offers strategic advantage along with any references that give credibility to the claim?

Siri is a feature so recognizable (unique) that people who have never had an iPad know she's the voice of iOS (now with the help of surface ads). Wait until you see Siri helping drive your car, as advertised by the car companies and Siri getting your reservations and tickets (as advertised by those companies.

I've seen people buy iOS just for Siri - usually someone who is used to shouting orders, someone who needs handsfree everything (dirty/wet hands), someone who thinks it's just so cool to interact with their computers through voice. It's the kind of feature, that while easy to deride, also sits there selling devices. It brings people in the store, it can be demoed well, is slightly whimsical, and like most Apple technologies, they will continue to refine it until it's actually useful.

How you expect me to show you data to back this up I don't know. I didn't say it was the most important feature, or a direct source of revenue, but believe me, if the Surface could talk like Siri that ad would have been very different. They would have had Siri say simple, confused things while the Surface chit chatted wittily away.

But instead they gave additional context and intelligence to Siri to try to sell their own product. I see FAIL there, sorry.